The Old Man & the Gun
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: September 28, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
47
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmJamie GrahamDec 3, 2018
So damn charming it makes your heart twinkle like Redford's eyes. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedSep 27, 2018
The magical chemistry between Redford and Spacek cannot be overestimated. Read full review
91
Original-CinKaren GordonJan 3, 2019
The Old Man & The Gun is, on the surface, a low-key, easygoing movie that is funny and charming. But it’s also slightly subversive, nodding to the appeal of the great American anti-hero, a role that Redford played many times in his career. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 27, 2018
It’s a puckish film with a wistful quality, a gently comic end-of-the-line adventure about doing what you love, the passage of time and the things that might have been. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 26, 2018
Sometimes a movie arrives that charms its way into your heart — and The Old Man & the Gun is just such an unassuming, exuberant gift. Read full review
90
VoxAlissa WilkinsonSep 25, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun — which, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is based on real characters — is a natural fit for both star and director, and in Lowery’s hands, it feels like both an homage to the past and a gentle step toward the future. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 31, 2018
The film makes plenty of mileage from trading on the charm of a good bad boy, and Redford’s long experience in playing such roles serves him beautifully here; he knows by now he doesn’t have to push his attractiveness to be ingratiating. His work here is natural, subtle, ingratiating and doesn’t miss a trick. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 31, 2018
People don’t forget a performer like Redford, whose movie-star charisma idles low and sexy like a Harley Davidson motor even when he’s not doing anything, and that means a movie like David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun — a dapper, low-key riff on the bank-robber genre — can play things soft, counting on Redford’s charm to fuel the show. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisOct 3, 2018
The beauty of Redford’s rock-steady performances over the last six decades or so is that he never showed off, and yet always commanded your attention. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 4, 2018
The pace is leisurely; this is no amped-up police procedural. I love what savvy director David Lowery does with the camera, panning here and there, picking up stray sights and happenings. Top-rate stuff. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 4, 2018
Forrest Tucker’s swan song moments in The Old Man & the Gun are well tailored for Robert Redford’s swan song as an actor. It’s a damn good performance that also serves as a fitting curtain call. Read full review
88
Paste MagazineWill LeitchOct 3, 2018
The Old Man and the Gun is a jaunty joyride, a valedictory for a beloved American icon and a giddy true story. But Lowery ties it all together at the end: It’s a story about how the years go by, and who we are. It’s a story about all of us. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 10, 2018
However suave the movie itself may be, it's another accomplished piece of work from a filmmaker who is now four for four, and continues to surprise with the range of his interests and output. And it’s a love letter to a cinematic legend, serving as a perfect final film for someone who long ago surpassed mere actor status to become an icon. Read full review
85
Vanity FairRichard LawsonAug 31, 2018
Mostly, the cat-and-mouse of Lowery’s film is just reason enough to contemplate the shuffling everydayness of life, of how we are ever aware of its finality while also tending to, seeking out, and appreciating the little joys, mercies, and adventures of it. Read full review
84
IGNWitney SeiboldSep 28, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun is a fitting swan song to screen legend Robert Redford. Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonSep 25, 2018
Lowery is content to live with these characters and show them to his audiences in hopes that they, too, will fall in love with them, and he succeeds mightily. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 8, 2018
The Old Man & The Gun is so reliant on the echoes of past films, on the career it’s constantly evoking and riffing on, that it sometimes feels as ephemeral as dust floating in a projector beam. But there’s something truthful and even moving in the way Lowery conflates the joy of one impossible occupation with that of another. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySep 4, 2018
The film is fizzy, lightweight fun with some real moments of genuine heart. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodAug 31, 2018
The various marvels of the movie aren’t just the sparks between Redford and Spacek or Waits’ dry humor but often, Lowery’s inspired direction. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnAug 31, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun eschews pastiche for a sweet, affable character study that resurrects Redford’s original star power with a wet kiss. The entire picture amounts to a low-key cinematic resurrection. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellDec 10, 2018
Despite the golden cast, this is Redford’s show, bolstered by a life-long career of effectively playing younger versions of Tucker. Read full review
80
EmpireNev PierceDec 3, 2018
A delightful folk story from one of the best filmmakers working today — and a fitting final turn from Redford, all easy charm and grace. It takes a lifetime of effort to look this effortless. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 30, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun plays like a long-winded joke with a sneaky punchline that warms you belatedly, like a shot of bourbon. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 11, 2018
Here, Lowery isn't trying to convince us of anything, other than the fact that he's got a dandy of a story to tell. Then, he proceeds to deliver it. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 4, 2018
David Lowery’s film is about as quiet and patient as what is ostensibly a caper movie can be. Yet its engine never idles, in large part because Redford, at 82, remains a movie star, someone to whom we are drawn, even as he is politely robbing a bank with a note, a gun and a smile. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 1, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun is as much of a fantasy as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Yet you buy into the geniality of Lowery’s movie, nourished as it is by the entire cast. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyAlan ScherstuhlSep 26, 2018
Rather than a tragic inevitability or a comic detachment, the final scenes have about them the whiff of resignation, possibly meaningful or possibly not. Read full review
80
The AtlanticDavid SimsSep 26, 2018
Lowery’s film is an easy-breezy celebration of Redford’s charisma and a fitting swan song given that it might be his final on-camera role. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneySep 14, 2018
If Redford really is done for good, this is a perfect way for him to say goodbye. Read full review
80
The GuardianGwilym MumfordSep 13, 2018
It would require a true curmudgeon to not derive pleasure from that twinkling performance from Redford, radiating smoothness, wisdom and charm to the very end. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2018
Redford has rarely been this commanding in his recent work, playing Tucker with a mischievousness in his eyes but also so much soul that his thieving feels more like an expression of some sad longing than a chronic criminal mind-set. Read full review
80
Film ThreatHunter LanierSep 11, 2018
The movie feels like a Sunday drive with your own thoughts, where you get some good thinking done, even if you don’t come to any lasting conclusions. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 5, 2019
It’s hard to imagine anyone in this role but Redford. Without him, there would be little here worth seeing. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 23, 2018
Brooding Oscar winner Casey Affleck may be playing a morose burnout case, but his eyes give away genuine delight in his scenes with the titular The Old Man & a Gun. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonOct 11, 2018
It's a nice gesture that he's chosen The Old Man and the Gun as his exit vehicle, gifting fans with heaping helpings of his relaxed charm, making a nod to the Sundance Kid, and even the flimflam fun of The Sting. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 10, 2018
The mood of the picture is relaxed. The vibe given off by Redford and his principal co-stars Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek is one of accomplished professionals feeling supremely comfortable inhabiting their roles. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyOct 4, 2018
Director David Lowery (“Ain’t them Bodies Saints,” “A Ghost Story”) did the adaptation of David Grann’s New Yorker magazine article. His direction is winningly relaxed, and his script has real flavor. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 4, 2018
I hope Spacek gets a role as spacious and accommodating as Redford’s someday. By contrast, Spacek’s co-star delivers what he has been best at: a single, careful look, or mood, or understated note at a time. Redford is not a chord man. I wouldn’t call the film itself complex, but it’s sweet-natured. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckOct 2, 2018
Were it not for Redford, the film would be — well, why even ask, because Redford is the point. He chose the role, optioned the New Yorker article, chose the director. It’s a perfect role for his swan song. But hey, Mr. Redford? We won’t hold you to that. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 27, 2018
“Old Man” isn’t hilarious or sleek. It’s mellow, like a campfire tale, or your grandpa’s stories set to whiskey. Redford’s voice never becomes louder than your average therapist’s. Read full review
75
The Film StageJosh LewisSep 8, 2018
We’re treated to a series of breezy heist/cat-and-mouse montages and a lowkey, conversational charm that are combined to hammer home the idea of how great a feeling it is to love what you do. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensSep 30, 2018
You walk out of this uneven but soulful movie with a smile on your face, maybe because that’s the default expression of Forrest Tucker, a man who practices grand theft with the stubborn passion of an aged master painter unwilling to put down his brush. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 27, 2018
In a word, The Old Man & the Gun is enjoyable; that’s all it means to be and that’s what it is. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 26, 2018
How much intensity and suspense can you drain from a movie about cops and robbers without having the thing collapse into anecdote and whimsy? The Old Man & the Gun kind of does just that, but it’s hard to mind too much. Read full review
65
Film Journal InternationalDaniel EaganSep 26, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun is never less than pleasant, and Redford's fans might even find it resonant. Others may think it's cute but underwhelming, sweet-natured but forgettable. There are worse ways to spend your time. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 11, 2018
The Old Man & the Gun’s problems relate to a lack of balance. The movie is fine when it focuses on Redford – at least until the anti-climactic final act when it loses energy and momentum – but dead-in-the-water where the other actors/characters are concerned. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 3, 2018
The Old Man and the Gun ambles along with such unhurried, folksy ease that it’s easy to overlook the people — mostly women — Tucker leaves in his wake, victims who may not be physically scarred, but often look as if they will bear unseen injuries into the future nonetheless. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 28, 2018
I hope this won’t be his last acting job. He’s too vital to go in for such a soggy send-off. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith UhlichSep 26, 2018
David Lowery has a carefree, bordering on insubstantial touch, which gives rise to several rank absurdities. Read full review
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